The program's second-, third- and fourth-year students will complete both its dress and window design in time for the American Heart Month reveal at the Lake Elsinore Outlets, where Gallagher’s class volunteers dressing retail stores’ windows.

In addition to participating in the Go Red campaign, Gallagher’s students fund their endeavors with embroidery and quilt-making businesses, where they employ the various skills they’ve picked up in a class geared toward prepping students for a fashion industry that’s become one of the state’s largest industries.

Graduates have gone on to become dressmakers, costume designers and professional buyers, and Christoplis believes she’s already well on her way to becoming a fashion show producer with the experience she’s picked up in Gallagher’s program.

“Pretty much everything I know is from this class,” Christoplis said. “I knew how to sew before, but it taught me a lot more than that -- how to dress windows, make my own patterns, do fashion shows and style. Pretty much everything you need for fashion.”